The Look of Love

I was never overly impressed with Chris Botti and in fact I saw him as the Kenny G of the trumpet. He never leaves his comfort zone, never really climbs out there on a limb and goes beyond what he knows. Instead he continues to constantly drop schmaltz tune after schmaltz tune on us and as a jazz fan that's just never worked for me. I can't however expect an artist to play what I'd like to hear or go where I'd like for them to go. I instead have to let them do their thing or ignore them altogether. I was doing the ignore thing with Mr. Botti until I heard his version of the Burt Bacharach, Hal David classic "The Look of Love". The second I heard it, it invoked a mood and a feeling I was thoroughly enjoying. This song, Chris' rendition of it is a mood setter. Smooth and lush with some great vocals.

It starts out with some faux DJ scratching and a keyboard sample over an nice and easy beat. Then Chris's trumpet comes in and before you know it you're bopping your head or tapping your foot. In a word, it's pretty. The heat comes in when Chantal Kreviazuk lays down some great vocals made famous by Dionne Warwick. She glides over the track like rain on glass, albeit her vocals are processed she stills sounds great and takes this track to heights it couldn't have reached without her. Chris comes back in and plays beautifully (admittedly his phrasing is amazing) and he and Chantal bring this hypnotic track to a close. The song is on Botti's 2003 release "A Thousand Kisses Deep", a collection of original pieces and remakes like this one and another classic "My Funny Valentine"

Like I said, I'm not really a Chris Botti fan and don't think I ever really will be. I am a fan of this song though and if you give it a chance to grow on you, you may become a fan of it too and maybe even a fan of Chris' too. Enjoy!